Megadouka Dimitra

Novel Phytomining production of advanced metalnanoparticles graphene catalytic membranes

The need for clean and sustainable raw materials production solutions to avoid increasing environmental damage that is caused by mining operations, is of fundamental importance for our economy. Phytomining is applied as a means of removing heavy metals from wastewaters and soils as it aids the development of heavy metal nanoparticles. The overall objective of this project is the reclamation of the metals obtained from phytomining by developing a membrane intensified process for the recovery of the metals in one-step production of advanced metalnanoparticle graphene catalytic membranes. To this end the main objectives are: (a) to prepare novel carbon nanotube array membrane distillation (MD) membranes (b) to concentrate copper and silver ion solutions by MD (c) to separate the metal ions by Nanofiltration (d) to anchor the metal ions on the surface of exfoliated graphene and prepare advanced metal nanoparticle-graphene catalytic membranes with predesigned hierarchical nanostructure (e) to prepare LOW COST antimicrobial coatings graphene decorated with copper nanoparticles.